EMPIRES children: THE PEOPLE OF TZINTZUNTZAN FOSTER 



7 



tudes, 1,000 to 1,800 in., to form the tierra tem- 

 plada, rich and lush valleys admirably suited to 

 the growth of sugarcane, bananas, cherimoyas, 

 guavas, mameys, and many other tropical and 

 semitropical products. These valleys became the 

 natural routes of communication with the lower 

 and drier tierra caliente which, though cut with 

 high mountain ranges, forms much of the west- 

 ern and southern half of the State, reaching to 

 the Pacific coast. From here, and also the cor- 

 responding region in Guerrero south of the Bal- 

 sas River, the Tarascans received gold, copper, 

 cinnabar, honey and wax, cacao, gums, and 

 copal. Hot, arrid, plagued with mosquitoes, 

 ticks, and scorpions, it was a land which one 

 avoided whenever possible, and the typical high- 

 land Tarascan culture, except for commercial 

 and military purposes, touched upon it only to 

 a limited extent. 



From a number of remarkable documents, 

 primarily the chronicles of early Franciscan 

 and Augustinian friars, it is possible to learn 

 a great deal about the pre-Columbian Tarascan 

 culture, and something of the later pre-Conquest 

 political history. From a purely ethnographical 

 viewpoint, the Franciscan reports are most use- 

 ful. Members of this order were the first to 

 penetrate the Tarascan Empire; they established 

 their first convent, Santa Ana, in Tzintzuntzan, 

 in 1526, and all during colonial history they 

 were particularly associated with the towns 

 geographically most properly called focal in the 

 sense of a Tarascan culture area. The earliest 

 and most revealing of all these documents is the 

 Relacion de las Ceremonias y Ritos y Poblacion 

 y Gobernacion de los indios de la Provincia de 

 Michuacan, hecha al Illmo. Senor Don Antonio 

 de Mendoza, virrey y Gobernador de esta Nueva 

 Espafia por S. M. G., commonly known as the 

 Relacion de Michoacan (Relacion de Miclioa- 

 can, Morelia, 1903). The author, whose iden- 

 tity is uncertain, was a Franciscan thoroughly 

 acquainted with the language, customs, and oral 

 traditions of the Tarascans. Some scholars, with 

 considerable justification, believe that Fray Mar- 

 tin de Jesus, the first Franciscan to arrive in 

 Michoacan, is the author. Although the exact 

 date of writing is not known, the best estimates 

 place it during the years 1538-39. Second in 

 importance, particularly for post-Conquest data, 

 is the Cronica de la Provincia de los Santos 



Apostoles S. Pedro de Michoacan of Pablo de 

 la Purisima Concepcion Beaumont, written at 

 the end of the 18th century, first published in 

 Mexico in 1874, and republished in 1932 

 (Beaumont, 1932). The bulk of the material 

 in the following resume of pre-Columbian Ta- 

 rascan culture has been taken from these two 

 works. Useful, but less detailed, information 

 is found in the Cronica de la Orden de N. Se- 

 rafico P. S. Francisco, Provincia de San Pedro 

 y San Pablo de Mechoacan en la Nueva Espafia, 

 by Fray Alonso de la Rea (Rea, 1882), and 

 the Historia Eclesiastica Indiana of Fray Ge- 

 ronimo de Mendieta, written at the end of the 

 16th century and first published in Mexico in 

 1870 (Mendieta, 1870). 



The Augustinians arrived in Michoacan in 

 1537 and founded their first convent in Tiripi- 

 tio, a few miles east of Patzcuaro. From the 

 second, at Tacambaro, founded in 1538, they 

 set out to evangelize the tierra caliente to the 

 coast. Later convents were established in re- 

 gions peripheral, or which became peripheral, 

 to the heart of the Tarascan area. For this 

 reason tlie reports of these friars, although con- 

 taining interesting information, are of less value 

 in obtaining a picture of aboriginal Tarascan 

 culture than those of the Franciscans. Useful 

 data are found in the Historia de la Provincia 

 de San Nicolas de Tolentino de Michoacan, del 

 Orden de N. P. S. Agustin, by Diego Basalen- 

 que (Basalenque, 1886), America Thebaida, by 

 Matias de Escobar (Escobar, 1924), and others. 



LEGENDARY ORIGINS 



At the time the legendary account of the 

 Tarascan dynasty begins, a sedentary popula- 

 tion of agriculturalists and fishermen lived in 

 the Lake Patzcuaro region and the high sierra 

 to the west. Some of these people spoke Ta- 

 rascan, and it is probable that other languages, 

 including Aztec, were spoken in the near vicin- 

 ity. Over a wide area to the north were nomadic, 

 nonagricultural hunting peoples of diverse lin- 

 guistic affiliation, generally referred to as "Chi- 

 chlmecs." The empire later known as Tarascan 

 had its traditional origin in conquest. Tarascan 

 Chichimecs living near Zacapu, worshiping their 

 god Curicaveri and led by their chief Hiretica- 

 tame, forced the subservience of the people 



